Every week, Wrecked will be highlighting 2-3 bands playing the upcoming Bay Area Metal Festival. We figured we’d start with the headliner, a legendary thrash band native to the SF Bay Area known as FORBIDDEN.

For Fans of: Testament, Exodus, Slayer, Metallica, Iron Maiden, etc.

The 2011 Bay Area Metal Festival is fast approaching, and looks to be one of the most historical events the Bay Area metal scene has ever seen. The mighty Bay Area based thrash metal band, Forbidden, has stepped up to headline the festival and bring spotlight to this incredible event.

We’re already one game into Round 2 of the 2011 NHL playoffs and our San Jose Sharks begin their series against the Detroit Red Wings tonight. I just want to say: DAMMIT I LOVE PLAYOFFS HOCKEY! Every game that I’ve been able to watch, I’ve been glued to my TV and they’ve all been great games. All of the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into every game and every series is so addicting. I had my phone set to send me updates for pretty much every scoring change for nearly every game, which made me sound very popular for the past week and a half.

It takes a lot to terrify me. Over the years, I’ve become desensitized to most scary movies and so-called creepy games. I tend to not jump or look away when my character is pulled into a dark abyss and slowly pulled apart and eaten. In fact, nothing really bugs me since the internet has pretty much single-handedly ruined me as well as an entire generation of teens. Example: just google Rule #34. Suckers.

The last title I remember that really screwed me up good and had me diving for the off button was Resident Evil and Silent Hill for the original Playstation back in 1999. Since then, very few titles of that caliber have even come close.

An amazing puzzle/platforming game for fans of Braid, Metroid, Portal, etc

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a story on the Xbox Live Arcade games sale going on, and I mentioned that I was planning on finally picking up Limbo. Well, I did, and in short: it’s incredible. I didn’t initially intend on even writing a review for this game, but there are so many gamers out there like myself that still had not gotten around to this gem. There is so much to like about Limbo, I just couldn’t keep it to myself. Old school gamers and new school gamers alike have already come together to celebrate this game’s greatness, and for good reason.

We all have memories as kids playing Mortal Kombat, whether we were at home playing it on Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo, or in the arcade because your parents wouldn’t let you own it due to the titillating amount of gore and the arcade was the only place you could get away with playing it other than your friend’s house, and he always whooped your sorry ass because he owned it. Whatever it was, the Mortal Kombat franchise has a ton of nostalgic value to lifelong gamers, a huge fan base, and probably two of the most badass characters in fighting game history: Scorpion and Sub-Zero. The latest installment, a “reboot” of the franchise and game debut from NetherRealm Studios, makes us feel like we’re 7 years old all over again.

As most of you probably know, Between the Buried and Me just released the incredible EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues this past month, and have already set out on a full US tour in its support. Brad gave the album a stellar 4.5/5, saying it’s the best thing BTBAM has done since 2005’s Alaska. On Wednesday, May 4th, BTBAM will be visiting our neck of the woods at Slim’s in San Francisco. I’m here to tell you how imperative it is that you all attend this show. It will be legendary!

There’s something ugly brewing down in San Jose, and it sure as hell isn’t Gordon Biersch. I finally got my hands on Filling Flasks, the debut EP from Flood Peak, featuring Peter Layman, Mike McClatchey, and Jake Wright. I’ve been following Layman and McClatchey’s sonic endeavors very closely over the past 8 years (Clearing Autumn Skies, Something Must Die, Apiary, Early Graves) and they’ve always struck me as musicians who write ahead of the curve in the originality department. Flood Peak is no exception.

After going 4-0 in less than twenty-five minutes of hockey in Game 3 against the LA Kings, the Sharks staged an unbelievable comeback to tie the game 5-5, before taking the cake with Devin Setoguchi’s wristshot in OT. Check out the highlights here:

.

Starting goaltender Antti Niemi was pulled from the game a few minutes into the second period and Antero Niittymaki was left to pick up the reigns for the rest of the game. Personally, I can’t fault Niemi for the Game 2 loss, as the entire team was playing really shitty in front of him, but he looked very shaky in Game 3. So this begs the question, will the Sharks continue with their starting goalie in Game 4, or will they keep Niittymaki in the net? I don’t think Niitty got enough playtime in before the playoffs started, but I liked the way the team played in front of him. They recognized that he hasn’t played in a while and stopped relying on their goalie to make the saves when they’re being lazy, like they sometimes had been with Niemi in net; there seemed to be more of a sense of urgency once Niittymaki came in. Hit up our poll below and tell us who you think San Jose will start between the pipes on Thursday, and tell us why in the comments section below!

ATTENTION: My friends in the metal & hardcore community, one of our own needs our help after suffering a terrible injury at a show. What do we do when one of our own falls? WE PICK THEM UP. Please take the time to read this post and donate what you can.

This hate does not spawn from anger because one of the members killed my cat or stole my girlfriend, but rather because this band showed me that I have a long way to go before I can write and perform music of this caliber. Needless to say, I went home the next day and feverishly practiced scales for the first time in months, maybe even years.

For those who haven’t heard, there’s a massive sale on Xbox Live’s Arcade titles this week, and TODAY ONLY (4.15) some of the biggest titles to grace Microsoft’s online service will be marked up to 50% off!

Back in February, like most of you, I had the chance to listen to the first half of “Specular Reflection”, the first track off Between the Buried and Me’s latest EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues (why the fuck does Google always try to correct “dialogue”?!). At first, my reaction was a bit lukewarm… BTBAM has always impressed the hell out of me with their creativity and technical capabilities, but have lacked serious replay value ever since Colors for some reason. After listening to The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues in its entirety, all I can say is “holy shit”.

Most of us here at Wrecked are avid sports fans. Mostly Hockey ’cause it’s the most bad-ass of all sports. Fuck Football. (Editor’s note: No, Sean, fuck you!) So with playoff excitement and booze running through our blood, here are our playoff brackets with our first round predictions. We’ll be analyzing our predictions after each round and see who still has a job here at Wrecked… cause if you’re wrong, you get fired. Rules are rules.

We also strongly encourage anyone willing to take on the Wrecked staff to post your own predictions in the comment section below. Half the fun of sports is talking shit, making wild predictions, and arguing about stats, so bring it on!

I mean, fireballs… and swords to the table.. as neither of these games feature any kind of guns… Either way, it’s a good day to be at Capcom, where the company just shed some light on two incredible games coming out soon: Street Fighter X Tekken and a new IP from the creators of Devil May Cry 4 and Resident Evil 4, called Dragon’s Dogma. Though arguably a pretty terrible name, the game looks fucking awesome; it’s like Monster Hunter, but actually looks fun to play!

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending the Opening Day Game for the defending World Series Champions, our San Francisco Giants. The Giants had just gotten home from a road trip to SoCal, coming off a 1-2 series loss against the LA Dodgers and a 1-1 tie with the San Diego Padres (2-3 overall). The opening home game would be against the St. Louis Cardinals, who were 2-3 at the start of their season. The game could have gone either way, but no one could have expected the game to turn out like it did.

Welcome again to Motorsport Sunday! Last week, we brought you the tale of Bill Caswell, a rally driver with an unstoppable passion for what he does. He won the recent LeMons race in the Bay Area. Well, he couldn’t have done it without the race team that brought him to the event and the $500 car he raced to the finish. I got the chance to speak to J. Farina (yes, he goes by his first initial) of team POS Racing about a number of important topics.